The Ascent
Short description
The Ascent is a Soviet war drama set in Belarus during the winter of 1942, where a partisan detachment of soldiers, women and children is hiding in the forest and struggling to find food under German occupation. Two men are sent out to obtain supplies: Sotnikov, an officer, and Rybak, an experienced fighter. When the Germans arrive at a farm ahead of them, the pair must travel deeper into occupied territory, and they are eventually taken prisoner and interrogated. The ordeal forces both men to confront questions of courage, loyalty and the price of survival.
The film was directed by Larisa Shepitko, who wrote the screenplay with Yuri Klepikov. It was her fifth and last completed feature, following Slepoy Kukhar, Wings, a segment of Родина электричества and You and Me. Boris Plotnikov plays Sotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin plays Rybak, and Anatoliy Solonitsyn appears as a collaborationist interrogator. On IMDb the film holds 8.2 out of 10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 7.9 out of 10 from roughly 258 votes. A critics' rating of 8.7 out of 10 from 29 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores, and the gap between the two audience ratings reflects how small the TMDB sample is compared with IMDb's.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the story "Sotnikov" by Vasily Bykov.
- The film was on the verge of being banned and was released only after the intervention of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, Pyotr Masherov.
- Filming, which began on January 6, 1974, on Larisa Shepitko’s birthday (according to other sources – filming began on January 5), took place in the vicinity of the city of Murom. The first scenes filmed were outdoor scenes – among fields, forests, and ravines – despite the forty-degree frosts. According to Boris Plotnikov, the frost and pristine snow were essential conditions stipulated by Vasily Bykov. This approach was approved by Shepitko, who said that the actors had to “feel winter with every cell” to more authentically embody their characters. The filming process was planned so that the performers of the main roles began with the simplest episodes in psychological and acting terms, which allowed them to gradually immerse themselves in their roles.
- Long before 'The Ascent,' Shepitko had suffered from hepatitis. Moreover, she hadn't fully recovered, and the consequences of the illness negatively affected her well-being during the filming of 'The Ascent.' In addition, she suffered from severe pain due to a recent spinal injury. But Shepitko still got up two to three hours earlier than the film crew to recover, after which she worked at the limit of her strength all day. Thanks to this dedication, filming proceeded without interruption and was completed a month ahead of schedule.
- For the role of the Fisherman, the director reviewed twenty candidates. The twenty-first was young Vladimir Gostyukhin.
- The filming of the film took place in an atmosphere of severe stress. Technical and organizational difficulties led to the need to call an ambulance to provide medical assistance to the director on set.
- Boris Plotnikov and Vladimir Gostyukhin played their first major roles in the film.
- The last completed film in the directing career of Larisa Shepitko. Three years after the film's release, Shepitko died in a car accident while filming "Farewell to Matera." The cameraman of "The Ascent," Vladimir Chukhnоv, also died in the same car accident.
- The first Soviet film to receive the highest award at the International Film Festival in West Berlin — the Golden Bear.
- From the very beginning of the search for an actor to play Sotnikov, Larisa Shepitko instructed the casting assistant, Emma Baskakova, to keep the image of Christ in mind, although it was forbidden to speak about it aloud. Boris Plotnikov, a 25-year-old actor from the Sverdlovsk Youth Theater at the time, seemed to the director to be the best candidate for the role, but officials at Goskino saw in Shepitko’s vision an intention to “smuggle Jesus onto the Soviet screen.” Plotnikov, whose repertoire previously consisted mainly of roles as fairytale animals, even had to be made up to further heroize the image in order for the artistic council to approve him for the role. The actor went through seven auditions, requiring him to constantly fly from Sverdlovsk to Moscow.
- The film's title was coined by Shepitko's husband, Elem Klimov. Following a long-standing tradition between the future spouses, established back in 1963, he received ten rubles for the idea.
- Gostyukhin recalled that he so fully embodied the Fisherman that the makeup bruise didn't disappear from his face for three weeks. After filming, the actor struggled for a long time to recover, trying to become himself again, not his character, and even refused to star in Larisa Shepitko's next film, despite her persistent requests.
- Vasily Bykov highly valued Larisa Shepitko and once admitted that if he had met her earlier, he might have written 'Sotnikov' differently.
- It took Larisa Shepitko four years from the time she read the story “Sotnikov” to prepare, obtain permission from the authorities, and begin filming the movie.
- Shepitko decided to use unknown or little-known actors whose past roles would not overshadow their characters in the film. Because of this, she had to turn down Andrei Myagkov, who very much wanted to star in the film. The same fate befell Nikolai Gubenko. Vladimir Vysotsky also did not pass the audition, eager to play the Fisherman.
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